Page 119 of Reaper's Ruin
“Will he be okay?” she asked, and I found it endearing how much she cared for everyone and everything.
“Yes. He’s a herd animal. He’ll smell the other Stormsteeds and join up with them. He’ll be home safe in his stall in a few days.”
Her face softened with relief.
“They’re getting closer,” Soraya said, her voice surprisingly steady. “We can’t outrun them.”
She was right. Storm Warriors were elite soldiers, their bodies enhanced by their trial-won powers. Against a dozen Storm Warriors, with no weapons but my sword and her dagger, if they found us, we stood no chance.
I hadn’t been able to summon my wings at will in this form. They had manifested only in moments of extreme danger or high emotion—when the Voltmauler had attacked, when I’d let myself lose control in her body, when we’d escaped the castle. Born of desperation and need, they’d appeared and vanished without my control.
But if I could summon them now...
I called on them, begging my wings to ripple from my skin, grant me the power to take them on. But instead of springing forth, nothing happened.
I cursed under my breath.
But even if they had obeyed, I wasn’t sure if I could overtake a dozen Storm Warriors at one time without significant risk to Soraya. She could withstand one of their powerful jolts, but not if several hit her at once.
A battle was too risky.
I could hear them now, too close, the sound of Stormsteeds pushing through the undergrowth, the low voices of their riders. The Storm Court’s elite, coming to eliminate the murderers who’d dared to slaughter the new King’s uncles.
If only they knew why.
I looked around, desperate for a place to hide, hoping they would see Moonshadow’s tracks and blow right past us.
“This way.” I pulled her deeper into the shadows of the trees, searching for a place to hide but finding nowhere secretive enough to conceal us from trained hunters. But when I heard them reach the place we’d just been, I had no choice but to take cover and hope they followed Moonshadow’s tracks right past us.
I grabbed Soraya’s hand and quietly pulled her behind a bush, kneeling down and using it for cover.
“The tracks stop here before it looks like they galloped off that way,” a deep voice said, no doubt examining where we’d just been.
“Let’s get them,” another voice growled.
I heard them start moving, anxious hooves dancing on the dirt. My breath trapped in my lungs waiting for them to gallop off after Moonshadow... away from us.
“Wait!” a voice said. “Footprints. Do you see that? I think they got off here.”
Fuck.
More voices joined the discussion. Some wondering if we’d gotten off to make camp and got back on and galloped away. Another though, damned her clever mind, wondering if we’d climbed off here and sent our Stormsteed away to mislead them.
“We need to search here for more tracks before we move on,” she said. “Make sure they didn’t get off and hide.”
Soraya looked up at me, eyes wide with fear.
We were barely concealed. It would be too noisy to climb into the brush, and even then, if they were halfway decent trackers, they would find us anyway.
“Rhyker,” she whispered, her fingers tightening around mine. “They’re coming. What do we do?”
I would die before I let them touch her.
The thought struck with such fierce certainty that it took my breath away. Eight hundred years I’d existed without feeling, without caring. And now, in the span of mere days, this woman had become everything to me.
I closed my eyes, reaching deep within myself, searching for that power that had served me for centuries. The shadows that had been my constant companions, my only solace. The wings that had carried me between worlds.
Nothing.
